“It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be left alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness

“Join us for this dangerous expedition, some of you will not return, but I know every one of you will give your lives before letting the Third Reich raise the Swastika over this accursed ultimate abyss.” Captain Brandon Carter, Assault on the Mountains of Madness

AotMoM Product Blurb posted:

Discover the secret history of the final days of World War Two, when the Allies join forces with the Soviets to battle the Third Reich in the most dangerous theatre of war yet… the snowy plains, icy mountains, and subterranean tunnels of Antarctica. Together, these brave soldiers must battle Nazis, occult conspiracies, monstrous forces and ancient horrors, as well as the very land itself. At stake is their own survival, and the fate of the world!

TIMELINE1930-1931 The Pabodie Expedition: A much-publicized scientific expedition backed by Miskatonic University ventures to Antarctica. While the expedition's goals are the collection of new fossil evidence and expanded knowledge of the continent, Professors Pabodie, Dyer and Lake discovered astonishing evidence of ancient civilization among an immense mountain range that dwarfed the Himalayas. Terrifying events unfold, leaving the few survivors broken and carrying grave secrets; the true details of the expedition are supressed for the sake of mankind.

1933 The Starkweather-Moore Expedition Despite dire warnings from Professor Dyer, this expedition followed the footsteps of the Pabodie expedition--while faced with aggressive competition by the Lexington expedition, a well-funded American group, and the Barsmeier-Falken expedition dispatched by the German government. Despite setbacks including scandal, death, arson, sabotage and storms--the Starkweather-Moore expedition ultimately joined forces with the Lexington group, only to be later betrayed. Once more, perilous portents arise--leaving those men and women who survived forever changed. While most sustain secrecy following their return to civilization, the German government begins new investigations into Antarctica--but political turmoil puts things on hold...

1939 The Neuschwabenland Expedition: A German expedition is dispatched ostensibly to perform coastal surveys and secure a potential port for the lucrative whaling industry, vital to the German war effort. In truth, these operations serve in secrecy to German loyalists intent on uncovering ancient powers to sate the burgeoning pursuit of the occult among secret societies and behind closed doors...

1939-present The Nazi Push into Antarctica: Now aware of the terrible powers lurking in the frozen south, the Nazi party was quick to act--establishing a secret naval passage to and from Antarctica via which U-boat missions and other Nazi vessels are able to operate away from the eyes of the world stage. Fantastic ancient materials are harvested in earnest, fueling the research and development of frightening technologies--further propelling the capabilities of those secret Nazi orders forward. One of the most closely-guarded secrets of the war, many even among the Third Reich remain unaware of the operations of the Black Sun order. In secrecy, Nazi sorcerers succeed in opening dimensional portals between their foothold in Antarctica and a stronghold in the Rhine--creating a tremendous tactical advantage in dramatically expanding their efforts on the frozen continent. However, as the war has turned, matters have become more desperate--and dangerous--than ever before: with Hitler dead, the Black Sun and Nachtwölfe forces of Nazi Germany will stop at nothing in one final mad gambit to emerge victorious...

OPERATIONAL RECRUITMENT FOLLOWS
I am looking for an intrepid team in the neighborhood of 6 to 8 players, potentially, in order to embark on the wild ride of a campaign that is Modiphius' Assault on the Mountains of Madness. Against the backdrop of Achtung! Cthulhu using the Savage Worlds variation of their rules, this would be a pulpy, perilous and at times horrifying trek for what will hopefully be a smooth ride in PBP. I'm estimating and have garnered somewhat that this campaign has the potential to turn into a bit of a meat grinder at stretches--not that this necessarily means player elimination, mind you--but with the scale of what's going on and the very dangerous and perilous expanse of the expeditions before you, I think that this is just the sort of game that could really use a nicely sized team of characters to support one another in that far-off frightful reach of the globe.

My thoughts are that I'll push to keep the momentum going at a very steady clip in the interests of actually completing this campaign, despite being via PBP, within a year; to accomplish this, I'm expecting that we're going to need to take a combination of regular update momentum (with or without all present posting in each stretch) and somewhat streamlined combat turns (fairly similar to what I've done in past games--rather than wait for 6 - 8 people action by action turn by turn each round, we'll shoot for intent and a bit of if/then/else try to compress more action per post / update.)

Ideally, folks will be passingly familiar with the Savage Worlds rules at least; if you aren't, you can check out a free test drive of the rules here and can go from there. The core rules for Savage Worlds are all of $10 and can be used for a ton of different games, really. For Acthung! Cthulhu, there is also the Investigator's Guide which covers everything, more or less, except potential Russian characters; there's an Eastern Front supplement for that if you're excited to read it.

But Gaist, I don't know Savage Worlds or Achtung! Cthulhu but I want to play!
Realistically, I'm not going to ask or require anyone to buy the books (though they -are- pretty nice!) and I'm fine with helping walk someone through the process in recruitment if they'd need a hand and have a concept in mind. That said, Savage Worlds character creation is very straightforward and, in my opinion, pretty forgiving--and we're going to be aiming for a pulpy sort of horror with this game if it comes together. I'm fine with working with folks who have no prior experience with the system or setting.

If you're interested in strapping in and riding this roller coaster on this likely suicidal expedition, here's gooey details for character creation--and a variety of potential 'appropriate' character archetypes that could fit nicely into the scheme of things to build ideas off of. We're perfectly suited to take both civilian and military characters in these circumstances, from both Allied and Soviet origins. We'll be playing through the precursor scenario that leads to the actual discovery of untoward activities going on in Antarctica--so as far as we'll be concerned, your characters are unaware of such from the word go (but will swiftly be swept into rather momentous and terrible events.)

SAVAGE WORLDS SKINNY

All characters are human, which means you begin with a free Edge.

You're free to choose your nationality from any of the Allied Nations--or the Soviet Union and such. Alternatively, this can be randomly determined if you're excited.

Choose if you're a Civilian auxiliary, or if you're in the military--and subsequently branch of service (Army, Navy, Air Corps or Marines for example.)

Attributes are assigned in normal Savage Worlds fashion: you have five points to progress each of your attributes up the die chain from d4 (default) - > d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12. Do note that some of the occupations listed above have some prerequisites associated with them.

Skills are assigned in normal Savage worlds fashion: you have fifteen points to assign to Skills as usual (skills do not begin at d4, so the first point must purchase it.) As with attributes, most occupations call for certain skills--so if you don't have the books, I'll definitely need to provide a hand here.

I'm ready, what kind of character can I play?
Here is a breakdown of the occupations / roles that are suited well for what's to come; you don't -have- to make something from among these, but they're excellent anchor points to consider when cooking up a character. Each of these will have some associated packages as part of your character generation, which I can help walk folks through; keep in mind as you ponder over these that they'll strongly inform some of your attribute, skill and edge picks--and that the more 'intense' or elite occupations will very likely entail more rigidity in the requirements you'll be tackling in those picks.

CIVILIAN OCCUPATIONSAntiquarian: A number of civilian advisers have been attached to the British and American forces mobilizing southward to gather intelligence and lend their expertise on the occult discoveries there.Boffin: Biologists or engineers auxiliary to military units in order to decipher captured German artefacts or identify strange creatures.Parapsychologist: Both Majestic and Section M retain a number of experts in psychic phenomenon and have deployed a handful to the front in pursuit of signs of paranormal and psychic activity.Spiritualist: Both Soviet and U.S. governments sometimes utilize "occult consultants" to advise on esoteric matters, particularly when Black Sun activity is involved.

INTELLIGENCE & ESPIONAGE OCCUPATIONSOsobist SMERSH: SMERSH (military counter-intelligence) operatives are embedded among all Soviet fighting units on the look out for Allied spies and German artifacts. OSS/SOE Operative: In addition to OSS, Majestic, and SOE operatives deployed from Europe, AIB field agents may also be participatory. If none of those acronym soups register with you, just figure these are intelligence agents concerned with the occult.

MILITARY OCCUPATIONSAircrew: Essential personnel, as aircraft are the most effective and important transportation available in Antarctica.Engineer: GB and the US both employ combat engineers to recover and destroy German facilities throughout the theatre.Infantryman: While most infantry in the campaign tend to be commandos or drawn from Special Forces, the Antarctic contingents of New Zealand and the Soviety Union are heavily based on riflemen, most of whom have received Winter & Mountain Warfare Training.Intelligence Officer: Lynch-pins of the joint task forces, acting as translators, advisers and interrogators to their commanders. See also SMERSH, for Soviet agents embedded to gather intelligence and attempt to capture discovered artefacts.Kinolog: Fast-moving assaults in arctic conditions will inevitably require dogs, and the Soviet Kinolog are invaluable in this respect.Medic: Manpower will be drawn thin--Allied forces will rely heavily on medics to keep their men and women in fighting shape.Maori: Battle-hardened and highly decorated veterans of New Zealand's Maori Battalion.Pilot: Like aircrew, pilots can and often do get involved in conflicts on the ice.Sailor: Naval forces are the backbone of the Allied presence in Antarctica and many sailors will be pressed as naval infantry for raids and rearguard actions.Sniper: Many of the Soviet's most decorated and elite soldiers are sniper veterans from the brutal fighting in Stalingrad and Operation Bagration, dispatched to assist in the joint operation.Tanker: Only Soviet forces include tankers, thanks to Stalin's effort to outfit and move tanks for fighting on the ice.U.S. Marine: Thanks to their brutal experiences fighting in the Pacific campaign, the Marines form the first to fight back bone of the United States' forces in Antarctica.

ELITE MILITARY OCCUPATIONSCommando: Best suited to represent special units, Commonwealth special forces, or the Australian 5th Independent Company in the theatre.First Special Service Force: With extensive experience in mountain warfare, airborne operations, and commando raids, the "Black Devils" are the most renowned U.S. soldiers in Antarctica.Paratrooper: The fastest, easiest and most dangerous way to bring soldiers to the fight is via airborne operations. The skill, experience and self-reliance of the men of the British 1st Airborne "The Red Devils," and the Soviet 98th Guards Airborne Regiment are of critical importance to the Allied effort.RAF Special Duties Pilot/Air Crew: No. 200 Flight RAAF, British special operations airborne troops.US Airborne: The 11th Airborne Division provides vital airdrop capabilities to supplement the United States Marine and naval operations.

I WANNA PLAY THE RANDOM LOTTERY!
Depending on whether or not folks have a lot of the material for this will make chargen a little awkward; so, if you've got a concept, I can endeavor to give some options based off that. If you'd like to ride the wheels of destiny, there's also a number of random generation charts available in regards to nationality and occupation; if that's the route you're looking to go and you're not looking to be American or British, then select:1st: Nationality Chart (Commonwealth, Displaced National, African Front, Eastern Front, Asian / Pacific Front)2nd: Occupation (Civilian or Military)

Send a d100 roll for each via this dice room. If you'd like to randomly determine your first exposure to the supernatural, add a d6 and a d10 roll to the mix too. Be sure to indicate who you are here, etc.--if you're going the lottery route, you can get three combos to pick from and I'll nudge the results around a little bit if/when necessary to try to edge towards interesting mixes / attempt to avoid completely untenable possibilities for this expedition.

Let's see how well this does or doesn't pan out!

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 21, 2016 around 14:57

This sounds pretty rad but I'm unfamiliar with the rules so I'd have some homework to do. Do you have a deadline in mind for the character applications?

I'd probably like to get rolling beginning of October in keeping with fun spooky Halloween season and the like for our first jaunt; I'm down to work with folks unfamiliar though, Savage Worlds is pretty easy to get a hang of fairly quickly.

I dunno if I'll actually be able to make a character, as october promises to be bad, but this is exactly my jam.

With how the first jaunt is structured, I'll actually have a pretty solid window to potentially introduce new characters belatedly as well, really--they'll just miss out on the initial foray prior to the actual expedition. I'm pretty flexible.

Savage Worlds attributes start at d4; on a point for point basis, each point increases an attribute by a 'die type' e.g. d4 becomes d6 becomes d8 becomes d10 becomes d12. d12 is the highest an attribute or skill goes, die-wise--afterwards you start getting plusses (d12+1 etc.)

Skills used without training default to a d4-2--which is pretty crummy, but not the end of the world. It's worth noting and emphasizing that in Savage Worlds, player characters are 'wildcards'--which means they gain the benefit of the 'wild die'--which is an extra d6 you roll alongside any trait (attribute or skill) rolls; if the wild die's result is better than your normal roll, you can use it instead.

This means that even untrained, what you're -really- rolling is a d4-2 and a d6-2 and taking the better of the two. It's also worth noting that dice in Savage Worlds explode--so if you roll a 4 on your d4, you roll it again and add it together--and can keep re-rolling every time you max it out.

As an example of what to expect for loose military occupation requirements:

Beyond those very very basic requirements, the different occupational packages I mentioned in the OP above have ready-to-use recommended sets of skills, suggested edges, etc.--so really, if you eyeball something that interests you, it's pretty easy to get the basic skeleton of a character going and then flavor the remaining skill points and such to personal taste.

As a universal Savage Worlds character creation tip: it's generally much much faster to raise existing skills after character creation than it is to buy new ones. I'll explain this a bit--your skills are linked to your attributes, so Shooting is linked to Agility for example; when you're buying up a skill in character creation, you can raise it up to equal to its linked attribute point for point--but once you exceed the linked attribute, it becomes two points per increase instead.

The way character progression works in Savage Worlds is every 5 experience points, you get an 'advance'--which can be raising an attribute by a die type (once per rank, ranks being 0 - 20 experience, 20 - 40, 40-60, 60-80 and then 80+), buying a new Edge (think Feats if you're a d20 sort, or Advantages if you're a GURPS sort), buying a single new skill or raising -two- existing skills if they're still under their linked attribute.

During character creation you also can (and really, I recommend that you should) take up to one Major and two Minor disadvantages, in exchange for which you get some added options like an additional Edge (or two) or more skill points or another attribute increase, etc. All of that is in the free Savage Worlds test drive rules, for reference.

And for a bit of a breakdown of what's going on here and why:
James took the allotted one Major and two Minor hindrances in exchange for +1 Edge and +1 Attribute; he used the attribute to nudge his Vigor up from a d6 to a d8 during character creation, making himself a little bit tougher (and harder to kill) and then spent the edge on Nerves of Steel, which is an -excellent- edge.

In Savage Worlds, rather than utilizing hit points, characters have Wounds (lethal damage) and Fatigue (non-lethal damage). A non-wildcard character, e.g. anyone not lucky enough to have a name or creatures which are more numerous and less potent--have a single Wound. Dealing that wound will knock them out of the fight and probably means they're either dead or in no shape to fight again without help.

Wildcards, such as player characters, have -four- Wounds--and can take three before the fourth incapacitates them. For each wound you're carrying, you're -1 to everything you do, including your Pace--which is how far/fast you can move. Nerves of Steel lets James ignore one wound penalty (and there are subsequent edges he can grow into later which will let him ignore more) which will keep him fighting effectively longer than otherwise.

Now, you'll notice that even James' sidearm does 2d6+1 damage--the way that damage is dealt in Savage Worlds has to do with toughness. Generally speaking, the default target number of any roll in Savage Worlds unless stated otherwise is 4 for a basic success--and for every 4 you manage to exceed the target number by, you get a Raise (Pinnacle loves poker lingo for their mechanics.) In the case of damage, however, the target's toughness is the basis of the target number to deal a wound instead--but there's an extra layer of protection all characters have, wildcard or otherwise: the Shaken condition.

If James is fresh to a fight and someone shoots at him and rolls 6 damage, he becomes Shaken, rather than receiving a wound off the bat; when his turn rolls around, he gets to make a Spirit check to try to recover, with a target number of 4. However, if James got tagged for, say, 10 damage--that would be a hit with a raise--he'd become Shaken and -also- receive a wound. Finally, if a target is already Shaken when attacked--simply meeting their toughness is enough to deal another wound, rather than needing a raise. One of the reasons that this is neat, though, is that you can make someone Shaken by means other than damage--such as intimidation, taunting, et cetera--which means that characters can set a target up to be easier to wound by messing with them in a variety of ways.

As for Quick: Savage Worlds handles initiative via handing out playing cards each round, higher numbers being better, face cards being better than numbers, aces being highest short of Jokers; with Quick, James gets to re-draw anytime he's dealt a 5 or lower for initiative--and can keep on doing so until he gets at least a six, which is pretty sweet! Of note, If you're lucky enough to be dealt a Joker--you can use it to go any time you'd like during the round and get a +2 bonus to everything you do when you do (including damage.)

If you're unfamiliar it can take a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it's pretty snappy in play, honest!

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 21, 2016 around 21:02

Still tapping my chin meaningfully and pondering between a Grunt With A Rifle and a Boffin With A Brain (until the shoggoths get it) but something will be made as soon as I get settled in my new place.

Is the existence of all these things still 'secret' enough that taking Doubting Thomas makes any kind of sense?

Really it's all down to 'Sure, they keep telling me these things exist, but I haven't -seen- them' sort of thing. DT's about trying to find a rational explanation for the irrational and supernatural, even if that's down to a dying, maddened breath. Just mind that you can rack up a whole lot of dementia once that veneer crumbles!

Izoldah Rostov was born in one of the many small villages near the northern Urals, far away from most of the news of the rest of the world. As a girl, she'd spent a lot of time exploring those icy lands, spending her first nights alone in the wilds at age 10. When the Great Patriotic War came, she was called too. Her skills were noticed, and she was made a scout and a spotter. Her own direct kill count was very modest. She preferred never to give away his position with his rifle, but many an accurate sniper shot or artillery barrage was called from a little hidey hole in the snow, and many fatigued soviet soldiers were guided to warm beds by her directions. And so, she was sent to Antarctiva, to go track down the fascists in those hidey holes. Of course, in all these times, she's always been supremely uninterested in what happens beyond her homeland. And of course she heard stories about magical artifacts and nazi sorcerers, and she has a laugh about it. The weird stories that go around sometimes...

I liked it--it was witty enough and a lot more impressive than I was expecting for a girl's toy cartoon. So I thought, "Hmm. I'm on Something Awful. I don't see a thread for this anywhere, but other people might like it--it's not like it would be the first cartoon for kids that SA's taken a shine to." So I made a real earnest thread and put it up in TV/IV. And I was both right and wrong, because the forum blew up and fell over, and the thread got raided to shit by FYAD, and in like I think two weeks the show was banned outright because people kept causing fucking drama.

With regards to tankers, should an app include just like one crewmember, or a tank commander specifically, or a whole crew?

With regards to tankers, should an app include just like one crewmember, or a tank commander specifically, or a whole crew?

Crew member or commander, though if the later you'll likely also need to invest in rank. Tanker is a little tricky, because there are definitely going to be opportunities for armored fighting vehicles to get in the mix in big ways--but we're also going to need to wrangle how or why you're out and about with strike teams on foot when the occasions arise as well.

It should be noted that a Tanker -could- fare from anywhere, but it's the Soviet 35th Red Banner Army who will actually be bringing tanks which have been prepared to fare in Antarctica. Mostly refitted BT-7 Light Tanks:

Generally speaking for everyone to ponder, but my intent is that like-tasked characters are very liable to be teamed up together (for example Shogeton's Izoldah would almost certainly be partnered up with a Soviet sniper as their spotter if one is present.)

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 22, 2016 around 13:25

I liked it--it was witty enough and a lot more impressive than I was expecting for a girl's toy cartoon. So I thought, "Hmm. I'm on Something Awful. I don't see a thread for this anywhere, but other people might like it--it's not like it would be the first cartoon for kids that SA's taken a shine to." So I made a real earnest thread and put it up in TV/IV. And I was both right and wrong, because the forum blew up and fell over, and the thread got raided to shit by FYAD, and in like I think two weeks the show was banned outright because people kept causing fucking drama.

Aight. I'll probably gin up a commander then, and a crew in case nobody else wants to try and figure this thing out.

Since I'm a loving war nerd, a quick writeup:

Early tank doctrine divided tanks into two roles, primarily--Infantry tanks, which were heavy, slow, and extremely tough, designed for supporting infantry pushes, and Cavalry tanks, which emphasized speed, exploiting gaps in the enemy front and causing mayhem behind them. The BT-7 is the last of the Soviet cavalry tanks--after it came the T-34 and the gradual dissolution of the concept of "tanks for specific roles" in favor of more generalized tank designs. So it's small, and the armor won't stop much more than firearms, but it can do 45 mph on a road and 30 over rough country, which is damned impressive for a vehicle that weighs almost fourteen tons. BT-7s at this point in the war were no longer being produced and were mostly seen in the Far East theater against the Japanese, who didn't have any real armor to speak of anyway--ones on the European front were mostly relegated to support and scouting, since they're small and fast.

A BT-7 has three crewmembers--a commander, who also works the radio, a dedicated driver, and a gunner who also loads his own weapon. The gun on these things can punch through five centimeters of solid steel.

The 35th Red Banner Army has been spending the entire war guarding the Soviet-Japanese border in Manchuria, so directly fighting Nazis before this is unlikely--however, there might actually be some really old crewmembers here, veterans of Khalkhin Gol and such.

Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at Sep 22, 2016 around 13:47

Right on, I'll try to shed a bit more light on things then. Without veering too deeply into spoiler territory, the conceit in the Achtung! Cthulhu alternate history is essentially that, with encouragement from Institute 21, Stalin green-lit preparations for the 35th for tasking to the joint Antarctica operation.

In this present timeline, all soldiers of the 35th Army just completed six weeks of additional training in the remote tundra of the Kamchatka province in order to learn arctic warfare and survival skills before shipping out; it’s partly by virtue of keeping a lid on what the 35th have actually been up to combined with their mostly having been stuck with BT-7s and M3 “Stuarts” that they aren’t packing heavier ordinance ready for deployment south (not to mention that the mindset is that cavalry tanks are hopefully going to fare a -little- bit better in full-on arctic conditions.)

There's a bit of politicking and more clandestine maneuvering involved--the Soviets have plenty of troops that haven't seen much direct combat yet and are still fresh this late in the war and/or have a much greater opportunity for extreme weather and mountainous training than most other forces for the Antarctica theater; at the same time, Stalin is much happier committing these sorts of troops while keeping his main forces comfortably ready for dealing with the European theater still--and frankly, the seeds of the Cold War are creeping about even as this joint operation commences.

All that aside, mind that the other conceit in Achtung! Cthulhu, like many materials that have Nazi Germany dabbling in occult and ancient alien technologies, you're liable to discover the pulpy mad science that has been applied to allow your opposition to field things you might not expect.

In pulpy game terms, the Black Sun and Nachtwölfe are ordinarily rivals throughout much of the A!C 'campaign'--Black Sun being the sorcerous and old school magic variety of occult Nazis and the Nachtwölfe being the mad science experimental warfare variety; in Assault on the Mountains of Madness, they're (pretty much out of dire straits necessity) teaming up--so expect mayhem.

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 22, 2016 around 14:03

More general system chat for folks who are new to Savage Worlds to have a peek at--this time covering some more breakdown of what the gear stat-lines reflect, as well as how ranged combat works in Savage Worlds.

For some additional breakdown, we'll eyeball some of Nina's gear. The Model 1930G has the Snap Fire quality, which means that it takes an accuracy hit (of -2) if you move in the same round you fire it due to being a sniper rifle, not having time to zero in properly, etc. With Trademark Weapon, Nina is particularly familiar with her rifle and more accurate with it--and with a Rifle Scope in the mix she gets an extra +1 to her shooting as long as the target is at a greater range than Medium (so > 48' in this case.) The three range increments listed for weapons are their Short, Medium and Long ranges--which are a universal -0, -2 and -4 penalty for attacking at those distances.

A lot of firearms in Savage Worlds tend to come packing AP, which as you've probably extrapolated is Armor Piercing. Armor is ordinarily added on top of a character's Toughness when determining how hard they are to injure; AP will penetrate armor up to its value when hitting an armored target, but it bears noting that AP does -not- bypass basic Toughness itself (so it doesn't do particularly more damage hitting an unarmored target, but does help to negate the armor of one.)

Steel Helmets, a pretty common piece of gear handed out in most packages for military characters, give +2 armor specifically to the head--and have a 50% chance of negating the bonus damage a character would ordinarily receive if shot in the head. Handy! Unfortunately, weapons such as the Model 1930G have AP 2 and will zip right through a helmet's armor (the wearer still gets the 50% chance, at least, however.)

I mentioned previously that generally the target number in most Savage Worlds rolls is 4 by default. Unlike systems with armor class or the like, shooting somebody at range is, by default, a 'mere' 4! Yikes! On the other hand, in melee, the target's Parry is the number you're looking for instead--so if you find yourself in a snowy ravine with a blasphemous Nazi occultist trying to stab you in the heart with a wavy sacrificial dagger, well, your Parry is what they're going to be gunning for. On an even more fun note, if you happen to be trying to -shoot- someone in melee, your target number becomes their Parry instead of 4--basically representing them tousling and having a chance to not get shot up close, since you're within reach with them.

Now, a target of 4 probably sounds deadly. It totally is! Nobody wants to get shot, as that is a quick path to getting killed. Nina, with a d12 in shooting and a +1 trademark weapon bonus at all ranges (with an extra +1 from her scope at > 48') is obviously going to be able to hit a 4 pretty consistently and easily (as one might hope, given that she is supposed to be a markswoman and sniper.) One might even say it's overkill.

What can Nina do with all that 'excess' chance to hit? Well, it will help her mitigate penalties for cover or range, to start with--and it will also make it more likely that she can pull off Called Shots more easily--such as the above-mentioned shots to the head. Any time you manage to get a raise on an attack roll (exceed the target number by 4 or more) you get an extra 1d6 of damage, too. Worth noting: no matter how many raises you get over your target number, you only ever get one additional damage die. Called Shots can be made with penalties to hit, Limbs are -2, Head is -4 (and gives +4 Damage, too), small targets are -4, tiny targets (such as vitals, the heart, etc.) are -6. Advantages to called shots can be anything from disarming an opponent to scoring extra damage or circumventing armor (someone wearing a flak jacket doesn't enjoy that same armor bonus in their limbs, typically, as an example.)

So! What about when you're being shot at? If you happen to be on the receiving end of a sharpshooter like Nina, or some well-hidden snow-camouflaged Nazi sniper--or just plain being under fire by soldiers with rifles and machine guns, your ticket could get punched pretty quick. Helpfully, there's a lot of different things you can do to make yourself more difficult to shoot and I highly recommend keeping them in mind.

The easiest and most common thing you can do is drop prone--which gives anyone shooting at you from more than 3' away a -2 penalty to hit you, raising that basic 4 to a 6 instead. Hooray, 50% harder to hit right off the bat--and dropping prone is free, too! If someone is within 3' of you, bad news: you're not any harder to shoot and they're probably going to try to pop you.

Additionally, you can (and should, whenever possible) seek cover; cover penalties can range from -1 to -6 penalties to hit you between degrees of soft and hard cover. You can even completely conceal yourself behind cover, to boot. Cover bonuses also add themselves as bonus armor to your toughness in the event of area effect attacks--so diving for cover to avoid a grenade can totally save your life!

Now, that being said, there's a lot of firepower that can and will punch through obstacles between weapons and their targets: whenever this happens, the hapless soul behind cover at least gets to add the toughness of the cover itself as an armor bonus to their own toughness--be consequently, that is susceptible to armor piercing the same as worn armor. Because of this, even though standing behind a cinder block wall might grant you upwards of 10 bonus armor on top of your squishy human toughness--a tank firing an armor piercing shell is likely to zip right through just the same.

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 22, 2016 around 18:46

Edges:
•National Identity: “Tommys” add +2 to Spirit rolls made to resist Fear, Intimidation, or arcane powers. It does not add to Spirit rolls made to recover from being Shaken
•Linguist: Begin play with a number of languages equal to Smarts; Smarts –2 to be understood in
any language heard for a week (English, German, French, Latin, Arabic, Swedish, Hindi, Dutch, Russian, Spanish)

Hindrances:
•Bad Luck: One less Benny per session
•Cautious: Character is overly careful
•Vow: The mission comes first

Seasoned Advances
Boost in spirit, d4 in Fighting and Stealth, Increase two skills (Persuasion and Shooting)

Background:
Born to Edward and Gaelle Hewitt in Switzerland. At the time his father worked for the British Foreign Service in Bern, Switzerland. Edward wanted his son to have a British education, so the family moved back to England. Due to his family's wealth and connections, he managed to attend Cambridge. He disappointed his family; however, when he went into Archaeology rather than a more prestigious field. After hearing a lecture by Margaret Murray, he started to look into occult traditions of Pre-Christian Europe. After graduating and going for his P.h.d., he spent time trying to find evidence of the witch cults which Murray had speculated about in her books. In his research he happened upon the Golden Goblin Press edition of the Unaussprechlichen Kulten. The book referenced a tribe of witches who lived in Scandinavia around the time of the 6th century. Bradley wondered if this witch cult had any connections to the epic poem Beowulf. In his research, he came upon 19th-century archeological evidence which seemed to confirm elements of the Beowulf story. He hoped that by applying the previous research on the historical elements of Beowulf along with his own study of Unaussprechlichen Kulten, he could find physical evidence of a prehistoric witch cult in Denmark.

He planned to spend a month in Denmark looking for signs of a lost tribe. Several weeks into his expedition, he disappeared. His disappearance went unnoticed. Since he was expected to spend a month on his expedition, no one worried much about not hearing from him. When the month passed with no communication, attempts were made to find him. Searchers found evidence of his expedition (some of his clothes and notes), but nothing else was found of him. Authorities presumed that he met with an unfortunate accident. That is until he appeared two months later with no memory of the time he had been missing. When checked out by doctors, he only appeared to be malnourished. Mentally, the missing time didn't appear to affect him in any way. Except the uncertainty of what happened bothered him greatly. He convalesced for a year avoiding all his previous studies.

The year allowed him to put some distance between what happened and his studies, he returned to the university. He didn't spend much time back at school when Germany invaded France. Great Britain faced another war. Although Bradley wasn't as young as many of the other recruits, he volunteered for the military. His father instilled in him a strong sense of patriotism and he knew he needed to defend his country.

Before he could join up with the army, a government official offered another way to serve the country. The offer involved working on a secret study group. He wasn't even allowed to know subject of the study group until he swore an oath of allegiance. Being full of patriotic fervor, he took the oath and joined the Special Operations Executive. The main purpose of the group had been to support resistance movements in Europe and elsewhere. However, the wide latitude given to the group allowed it to branch out into other areas. One of these areas happened to be the study of German occultism. This research began after the first SOE operatives in Europe discovered evidence of Nazi research into the occult. This caused the leaders of the SOE to create their own occult research team. Bradly happened to be one of the first people picked to be a part of the research team.

At first the Nazi occult research team had been based in England. As the research of the Nazis increased, it became apparent that researchers were needed in the field. Bradley volunteered to go out on field missions. He then went through the SOE basic skills school and went to work out in the field.

DocBubonic fucked around with this message at Sep 28, 2016 around 00:49

Lt. Hughes here grabbed an actual Rank, which would potentially put him in command of a group of characters--possibly even player characters. What this could lead to as he grows with advancements is traversing down Leadership edges, which could prove to provide squad-wide benefits for his fellows--provided they continue to operate under his command and carry out his orders, mind. Being an officer is certainly not all good news and roses--but one of the ancillary perks Lt. Hughes would enjoy is an extra Benny each 'session' (we'll be abstracting this a bit, mostly between plot beats.)

So! Bennies are one of the biggest perks players get. Bennies are normally represented as poker chips in physical games of Savage Worlds and you can think of them as similar to action points or hero points or the like from other systems. The three main things you can 'spend' bennies on are re-rolling dice, removing the Shaken condition and using Vigor to attempt to soak incoming Wounds.

When you spend a Benny on a re-roll, you take the best result when you do--Bennies will never gently caress you over in this fashion. You can spend Bennies to keep doing this as long as you have them if you really want.

For Shaken, you can spend a Benny so you can act immediately (when you're Shaken, you get a free roll at the start of your turn to get rid of it--but if you fail, you can opt to spend a Benny to get rid of it immediately and still act. Note also that even while Shaken, you can still move--so you can seek cover and get your rear end out of harm's way, etc.)

Soaking wounds can also be performed with a Benny, attempting a Vigor check when you do. A success (4) will soak one incoming wound, the more 'raises' you get from there (increments of 4 e.g. 8, 12, 16) will soak additional wounds. If you manage to soak all incoming wounds, you also shed the Shaken condition, even if it was from previous wounds, as an added bonus. Using bennies to soak wounds is the #1 way to keep a character from getting killed, generally speaking.

There are also a variety of edges and other abilities that can utilize bennies for different things, but I won't get into them right now--just know that generally speaking, bennies are the best way to have an ace up your sleeve when you need to get out of a jam or try to ensure that you succeed on something important.

Lt. Hughes defaults to 4 bennies per session instead of 3--but his Officer status gives another very particular perk: he can spend his bennies on anyone under his command, not just himself--potentially affording a subordinate a much-needed soak roll, or snapping them back into action from being shaken, etc. Rad!

You receive bennies intermittently, too--you might get them as a group for milestones or successes, for example, or taking out a big foe or group of foes; you can earn them through good roleplaying, clever ideas, all sorts of things. Know, however, that the Keeper (that's A!C's GM) -also- has a pool of bennies to spend intermittently for the baddies--so you can bet your bottom that particularly irascible enemies and terrors will be slinging them to keep on trucking, too.

"Hell, it already feels like I've been chasing the drat Nazis to the ends of the earth as it is. Might as well actually go to one of the ends and give them the business."

S/Sgt. Ronald "Ronnie" John Thomas was born the day the First World War ended, and there are some in his little town of Somerset, PA that said he was born for the next war. A touch rambunctious, but also a bit wiser than his years, he was an early leader, a literal Boy Scout, a coldly self-reliant young boy. He needed to be, because by the age of fourteen his mother Doris died, and he had to help watch over his three younger siblings while also keeping up with schooling and Scouting, while his father ran the family business. He was, as they would say, a man young, characterized by a steely resolve and a dry, dark sense of humor colored that way by his early hardship and loss.

But his father eventually remarried, and the need for him at home was gone. So he enlisted the day he was eighteen, and was assigned first to the Big Red One - the First Infantry Division, far to the south at Fort Benning, Georgia. He served diligently for years in peace, and cross-trained on anything he could, driven as he was to be the best soldier he could. Mountaineering, even amphibious assault later on once the United States had begun to prepare for the war it knew was coming sooner or later. The One was going to be part of the point of the spear, but there was another assignment that would serve as Ronnie's entry into the war instead.

After Pearl Harbor, as the One was being activated for overseas deployment, word of some bizarre special operations command spread, and volunteers were asked for. They were looking to build a unit that could do anything, fight anywhere, under any conditions, and never give up or give ground. Ronnie jumped at the chance.

It was another year of training far away in Montana before the Devil's Brigade, the First Special Service Force, was ready. All the special forces training you could ask for, and even some that you couldn't. Ronnie was one of few Black Devils who served for the entire lifetime of the unit without being wounded and forced out of action. He was a hard, fierce fighter. He was not the most skilled, or the smartest, or the toughest, though he was decently skilled and smart and tough. What made him different was being truly indomitable, always able to get the job done and take care of his squad, sometimes prudent but never intimidated. If there was a drawback, it was that he was maybe a bit too brutal, living for killing maybe a bit too much. The fighting at Anzio was the culmination of both of these.

The 1SSF held their beachhead in the face of nearly a hundred days of near-constant, unrelenting combat. Here Ronnie acquitted himself well as a soldier, participating gleefully in the disruptive night raids that made the 1SSF famous and whittled the enemy down in proportions far in excess of the Devil's Brigade's comparatively tiny numbers, and earning more than his fair share of proverbial notches on his belt. But there was a dark side, as well: Ronnie rarely took prisoners. On one occasion, after executing (or in his parlance, "mercy killing") a wounded German, a buddy demanded to know why: his answer was, "Better him than me, and better me than you." It was an ethos, in some way. Perhaps for a man with as dark a sense of humor as Ronnie, it all made sense that way. He was no stranger to getting his hands dirty or to having to suffer certain thoughts about the world, after all. Why make someone else have to live with such things?

The Devil's Brigade was disbanded in December 1944, and Ronnie was shuffled off to the Army Rangers for a time, but soon enough he got word that the Brigade was being reformed, with a new target, a hard target, perhaps the hardest in history: Antarctica. It couldn't help but make him laugh when he heard about it, thinking about the cards the 1SSF used to leave on the bodies of dead Germans to mess with the heads of their living comrades: "The Worst Is Yet To Come." There were other rumors of what they might find, but whatever extra dangers were there, he didn't much care outside of how to get the job done.

For a man who'd fought halfway around the world against the Nazis and their allies, how could he pass that up?

It's almost 1 am over here, rest of gear and background will be up tomorrow. I want her to speak German and French because she's from a bilingual part of France and also they are both my mother tongue. Do we use the rule for bilingual regions that's mentioned in the savage world book or should i pay the 4 skillpoints for German + 3 for English ?

This is a good question, and one that I'll mull over a bit still. Speaking of mulling over, though:

ATTENTION!
After consideration, Command has determined that all persons involved in this operation should minimally be Seasoned. Accordingly, this means that everyone gets to begin immediately with their characters at Seasoned instead of Novice (+20 experience) which equates to four additional Advances! Enjoy!

This adjustment of starting experience should help represent your characters being better prepared for candidacy in these affairs--and also help give a little bit more maneuvering room for a few of you that are keen to pursue character concepts with somewhat more demanding requirements.

Note: the four advances from this post are considered 'post character creation' which doesn't mean -too- much mechanically, but when you're spending them keep in mind the following if you're unfamiliar with Savage Worlds:

Only one of these advances may be used to increase an Attribute by one die type. If you elect not to use one of these advances to increase an Attribute, be advised that you'll be missing the Novice -> Seasoned window for an attribute increase.

Advances can be used to purchase additional Edges. Only one of these advances may be spent on an Edge with the 'Seasoned' requirement, since technically the fourth advance is also the one where your character 'became' Seasoned.

It is important to identify where your skill ranks were at time of character creation before taking these four advances. The reason for this is that once you begin advancing in experience, the cost of purchasing new skills or raising existing skills changes.

One advance can purchase one new skill at d4. Skills are all linked to attributes, such as Shooting being linked to Agility. One advance will raise two existing skills as long as they are lower than their linked Attribute or one existing skill if it is equal to or greater than its linked Attribute.

You shouldn't buy off Hindrances with these advances, because that would be kind of silly and pointless.

I'll start going through the characters posted more thoroughly and see if there's any suggestions or tweaks that might surface--but I figure that this ought to give you all a little more fun wiggle room for your character concepts. It would be helpful if you set aside a separate little block to indicate what you spent your four advances on.

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 23, 2016 around 14:36

I have some issue with equipment because the Investigator's guide pretty much only covers weapons and doesn't seem to have costs for anything ? I can't seem to find most of the stuff you have in your sample characters.

Also is it just me or do shotguns kinda suck ? I liked the idea of zooming about and blasting nazis but the stats just seem really underwhelming compared to almost all other guns.

And how much will we keep track of ammo ? I know different GMs have very different opinions on that.

Of course if you see something messed up or some beginner mistake that would be real bad later on feel free to let me know.

I have some issue with equipment because the Investigator's guide pretty much only covers weapons and doesn't seem to have costs for anything ? I can't seem to find most of the stuff you have in your sample characters.

Also is it just me or do shotguns kinda suck ? I liked the idea of zooming about and blasting nazis but the stats just seem really underwhelming compared to almost all other guns.

And how much will we keep track of ammo ? I know different GMs have very different opinions on that.

Of course if you see something messed up or some beginner mistake that would be real bad later on feel free to let me know.

I've got Weird Wars II as well as the various Achtung! Cthulhu books for the Eastern Front, etc. so there are expanded tables for various arsenal for the different sides; chances are, if you have a particular weapon in mind you're looking for stats on, I can probably find it out.

Your $50 starting cash is really for anything personal you want to bring around, you're not really going to be charged for basic gear and load-outs. If someone wants specifics, include a note and I'll eyeball them all before we get rolling (and you can always try to make requests when a quartermaster is available, etc.)

SHOTGUNS
Shotguns are quite good in Savage Worlds if used for their strengths. I'm not sure why the Investigator's Guide doesn't note it directly, but in Savage Worlds shotguns also give you a +2 bonus to Shooting when used, and 3d6 damage in Short range is pretty nasty. Consider that, combined with the +2 Shooting bonus, you have very good odds of getting a hit with a raise on someone in Short range--you'll commonly roll 4d6 damage instead for 4 - 24 damage, when most soldiers are averaging 5 or 6 toughness.

On top of -that-, any time you're rolling more than one or two dice for something in Savage Worlds, you've got that much higher odds of some of those dice being 'aces' (max rolls that 'explode'--e.g. you roll them again and add them to your total, and keep doing so every time you roll max) and you can very quickly end up with results where a solid shotgun hit immediately obliterates your target even if they're a wildcard (with four wounds instead of one).

The downsides to shotguns are the damage drop-off (Medium range is 2d6, Long range is 1d6) and the lack of armor piercing that you get with pistols and rifles and the like. You -can- however load shotguns with slugs, which swaps their damage to a flat 2d10 instead in exchange for losing the +2 Shooting (which is supposed to represent the spread from Buckshot having a higher chance of landing on-target) and makes them more suitable for engagement at all ranges while packing a pretty nasty punch still.

AMMO
We'll track ammo. It won't generally be too onerous when the lot of you have ready access to resupply, but I feel that it is something that can add considerable dramatic tension as we start to delve deeper and deeper away from civilization, supply chains and the like if things start getting really hairy.

Plus, in Savage Worlds having to reload does trigger an action, so it's mechanically significant--and it makes it at least a little bit more of a meaningful choice if the difference between armory comes down to whether or not you've got a magazine, how many shots you can carry between reloads, all that jazz.

That being said, my intent is for tension, not onerous book-keeping.

I'll be going through as folks have their characters put together and weigh in more on suggestions and the like a little later on; we'll make sure everyone is ready to roll.

Hmm yeah I see what you mean for shotguns I a) forgot damage dice can also explode so 3d6 is a much higher crit than 2d8 and b) misread the slug damage as 2d6 somehow. Guess I'll stick with it in that case.

Does any of the supplementary gear have any in game effects ? Like the medic occupation says they have a field med kit but I can't find what that means. I added it because I figure my character should have one but somehow I can't find any description in the core rule book, the investigator guide or the eastern front. Did I miss a table somewhere ?

Hmm yeah I see what you mean for shotguns I a) forgot damage dice can also explode so 3d6 is a much higher crit than 2d8 and b) misread the slug damage as 2d6 somehow. Guess I'll stick with it in that case.

Does any of the supplementary gear have any in game effects ? Like the medic occupation says they have a field med kit but I can't find what that means. I added it because I figure my character should have one but somehow I can't find any description in the core rule book, the investigator guide or the eastern front. Did I miss a table somewhere ?

Medical supplies give a +2 bonus to Healing checks as long as they last, a Field Medic Kit has 10 uses worth of supplies and is sort of a collection of morphine, painkillers, et cetera. Pages 115 & 116 of the Investigator's Guide are where you can see the mechanical bonus for medical supplies, for reference.

Born in Ohinemutu, on the North Island of New Zealand to the Te Awara confederation of tribes in 1913 (he's not sure when) Harry was a scrapper from the word 'go.' With four older brothers it was probably self-defense. Fearless and self-confident, he was walking before he was a year old and fell and broke his arm when he was three trying to get his ball off the top of the house where one of his brother had thrown it. It took a week before his family realized it was broken. When asked why he didn't tell anyone it hurt, he said he didn't want to get into trouble for climbing on the roof.

He was never much for school work, preferring fishing, canoeing and rugby, and listening to stories as he worked in the pastures herding sheep with his uncle who'd served in 'the Great War.' He signed up in 1940 when it looked like an invasion of his homeland was imminent, and joined the 28th (Maori) Battalion, serving with distinction in Italy, Greece and North Africa until 1943 when he was transferred back home due to time served. His fearsome reputation as a hand to hand fighter (in Italy it was said his favorite phrase was 'fix bayonets') had him sent from Trentham at Wellington in winter of '44 to train with a special joint forces unit in Melbourne, Australia. A car accident while on a 48 hour pass gave him the dubious distinction of having been wounded (and killed) on three continents: Europe, Africa and Australia.

From there he went to Borneo and participated in guerrilla warfare and antipersonnel activities which remain classified. He added a fourth continent to his list. After Japan surrendered he was discharged and went back home to his village, where he languished, bored, until he was asked to participate in this latest effort in Antartica.

"Welp," he is reported to have said with a grin, "I guess I might as well add a fifth."

1 point of dementia from failing nausea roll then getting a 1 on shaken horror table gently caress YOU DICE
1 point of dementia from tentacled horror at end of Book One (passed Terror check)
35 XP total, 35 spent
Advance spent on raising Agility to D8
5XP Advance awarded on 11/22/2016 used to bump up Notice and Throwing to d6
10XP awarded on 10/18/16, spent on Brave and buying Intimidation d4
20 XP extra to start at Seasoned

HEAVY ARMOR & HEAVY WEAPONS
Jack is not a terribly fun guy to be around, but he's definitely ready to throw down with squad support or pitch in against heavy armor opposition. Both his Bazooka and M2 Browning have the Heavy Weapon quality--in Savage Worlds, armored fighting vehicles and the like have a quality called Heavy Armor, which represents that they are impervious to most small arms fire and the like. Heavy Weapons are able to damage targets with Heavy Armor (or penetrate them, as the case may be) which means that Jack can potentially deliver some hurt even with his heavy machine gun against targets in an armored personnel carrier or the like, thanks to his .50 caliber munitions.

SUPPRESSIVE FIRE
Suppressive fire ordinarily covers a medium burst template, but with Hose 'em Down, Jack can spend twice as much ammunition to instead cover two medium burst templates (and later, if he takes Improved Hose 'em Down, three!) Suppressive Fire forces all targets under the area of effect to make a Spirit check or be Shaken--and if they roll a 1 on this Spirit check, they're hit by the weapon's damage to boot. By making groups of enemies Shaken, Jack can reduce their ability to return fire and cover his his squad-mates. Nice!

RATE OF FIRE AND SHOOTING A WHOLE LOT
With a Rate of Fire of 3, Jack can potentially deliver 6d10 damage with his M2 Browning to a target which, as you can probably guess, can be potentially pretty devastating. Ordinarily, going Full-Auto would impose a -2 Recoil penalty to Jack's shooting roll--but the Rock and Roll Edge lets him ignore this as long as he remains stationary (which generally speaking, Jack's going to do if he's covering his buddies to begin with.)

ACTIONS & MULTIPLE ACTIONS
If you're used to other systems, actions in Savage Worlds may be a little different than you're accustomed. Each round, you can move up to your pace in distance basically for free (there is no 'move' action) and can divvy that pace up throughout taking your actual action(s.) By default, everyone has one action per round, whatever they decide to do with it; at the start of a round, however, you can decide to take multiple actions ahead of time--and for each action beyond the first you take in the round, every action you take that round is made with a cumulative -2 penalty.

The trick is that while you can technically take as many actions as you want in a round, you can only take each given action once apiece--so for example you can't take multiple 'attack' actions per se. The advantage of a higher rate of fire is that you can put more lead in the air with the single attack action you can take. Since 'move' isn't an action, you can't just take a bunch of move actions--but you can decide to run on a given round for a bit of extra distance for a -2 penalty (much like the multi-action penalty.) By default, your running die is a d6 of extra distance, but there are Edges which can give you a bigger running die / better Pace.

There is, however the option to take the 'Rapid Attack' action which is a more reckless approach available to melee and semi-automatic or revolver weapons--up to three times in melee, or up to six times at range--with a whopping -4 penalty to all of the attacks; additionally, you get a -2 hit to your parry until the next round. Additionally, you only roll your wild die once (the extra d6 you get to roll alongside any trait rolls) next to all those shots--which spreads your safety net a little thin.

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at Sep 23, 2016 around 20:09

I'm pondering a spiritualist belonging to the UK's Spiritualists' National Union. The gist is that she'd want to join the expedition to promote their cause. Nitty-gritty stuff will follow after I familiarise myself with the system and setting!